ULI/Citistates Summit Participant Mahim Maher on Water Infrastructure in Karachi

Mahim Maher, the City Editor for the Express Tribune in Karachi, Pakistan writes about Nicholas You’s presentation on urban water infrastructure and how those global issues might affect Karachi in a column on August 23, 2012. Karachi currently gets its water from 150 km away and is largely dependent on external sources.

So much water is lost around the world in leaky pipes that it would be cheaper to just give people five litres of drinking water in cans each day. The Italians would need seven litres, though, because they need to boil pasta.

The wry humour of urban development advisor, Nicholas You, barely masks subterranean frustration. He wants us to stop and think about something as dry as water and sewage.

To put this loss in perspective, Karachi loses more than one-third, or 35%, of its water to leaks, estimates the water board. Singapore, at the other end of the spectrum, loses less than 5% of its water. How did the island city state, which at one point imported all its water from neighbouring Malaysia, manage this feat? Can Karachi take a few lessons from the smart city state? Continue reading